Labor Day, Mass of St. Joseph the Worker

When Joseph took Mary into his home, she bore a son, and Joseph named him Jesus: An ordinary carpenter, a pious wife, and a little child. It was a family hardly worth noticing, unless you knew that the boy was the Son of God, and Joseph’s wife was the Mother of God and future Queen of the Universe, and Joseph himself was the guardian of God Incarnate, and of the Church that is the very Mystical Body of Christ. Their greatness was hidden in their ordinary lives of humble manual labor.

Like St. Joseph the Worker, we value manual labor. We want to live by the work of our hands. There is tremendous greatness in our labors of love, year in and year out, being Josephs to one another in our communities. We know that within the humble work of his life on earth, there existed and continues to exist a greatness from God that will only be seen in all its splendor when we are gathered together with St. Joseph in the kingdom of heaven, God’s own workshop.